If you reject all people with dark personality traits, you may end up with a culture that is too considerate, where the ability to make painful but necessary decisions is lacking.
Employees with predominantly dark personality traits can come across as arrogant, ruthless and selfish.
With the new PTX tool, you can identify candidates with dark traits. It may be tempting to decide not to let such people into the workplace in order to create a healthy and harmonious group where everyone wishes each other well.
But of course, recruitment isn’t that simple. Even though people with dark traits can be challenging to work with, they can just as easily be assets that enable you to deliver the best results. And before we judge them too harshly, we should remember that we all have such characteristics in us. It’s part of being human.
In some, dark traits are simply brought out more quickly and easily than in others.
Expert: Avoiding recruiting people with pronounced dark personality traits can weaken your organisation
For our latest statistical report, Dark Traits in Management, we interviewed Tine Wøbbe. She is one of Denmark’s leading forensic psychologists and chief psychologist at the Sct. Hans Psychiatric Centre, as well as an external lecturer at the University of Copenhagen.
She says that dark traits can not only be a great advantage, but a necessity:
Sometimes you need to be able to make cynical decisions. You need to keep your eye on the ball and act without hesitation if the best decision for your business is to fire employees. That’s why having someone with some degree of antisocial traits can be an advantage in certain situations.
Without the presence of such people, we can end up in a situation where we’re so considerate that we fail to make the right business decisions.
When we ask Tine Wøbbe if she thinks people with dark personality traits should be avoided in the workplace, the answer is clear:
No, I don’t think you should avoid them, because that would weaken your organisation. You need their competencies but you must make sure they stick to a straight and narrow path. We need to recognise that dark traits are part of being human. And anyone that possesses them to a pronounced degree needs to be managed so they become an asset rather than a liability for the organisation.
How to manage employees with dark traits so they become assets
It often takes considerable effort to keep people with predominantly dark traits on a productive path, and when working with these individuals, it is important to understand that the usual management and motivational approaches may not work.
Three important things to remember when working with people with pronounced dark traits:
- If they don’t respect the hierarchy and don’t know who is in charge, they may take advantage of you. Therefore, you must be consistent and respond firmly if you encounter an unnatural lack of respect.
- Maintain a balance in the way you acknowledge them. Be both positive and critical. If you are only positive, it will nurture their antisocial side and the belief that they are better than others. If you only accentuate the negative, they will push back and create problems for you.
- Find out what motivates them. They will typically be driven by self-interest, such as getting bonuses, reserved parking spaces and promotions. The story about the good things the company does for others is irrelevant to them.
Above all, one must not be naive when working with people with pronounced dark traits. Softer management approaches may not necessarily resonate with such individuals. They need clear boundaries and clear communication.
Tine Wøbbe is the chief psychologist at the Sct. Hans Psychiatric Centre and one of the country’s leading experts in psychopathy. She has written the book, “De siger jeg er psykopat”, which provides a deeper insight into psychopathy in general and attempts to answer what makes a psychopath based on six stories.
